Washington’s medical marijuana patients could see a significant
alteration in the way they access their medicine, depending on the fate of a
pair of bills working their way through the state legislature this year.
Recreational users might also see a big change – the new ability
to grow for themselves – should one of the bills get signed into law.
Washington’s marijuana market, legalized by initiative for
recreational use in 2012 and first operational on a bureaucratic level in 2014,
has faced challenges involving the preexisting medical system, confederate
local governments and continued competition from the state’s black and grey
markets.
The two bills, one sponsored by Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles,
D-Seattle, and the other by Sen. Ann Rivers, R-Clark County, seek to address
all or some of these issues. However, the approach each one takes differs
significantly.
The state permitted the use of medical marijuana in 1998 through
an initiative. However, the system remains largely unregulated and, when paired
with the heavily-regulated state recreational operation, has birthed a “grey”
market, where recreational users can easily acquire medical pot through
unapproved means yet avoid prosecution through statewide legal protections.
One aspect – collective gardens – has specifically come under
fire. The gardens allow up to ten medical users and/or their “designated
providers” to pool resources and grow up to 45 plants and 72 ounces of useable
marijuana. While none of the marijuana is supposed to go to anyone other than
the patients, there is nothing in statute regulating them.
“I don’t think there’s any dispute that we have to do something
about the unregulated, unlicensed, illicit in many cases, market out there for
medical marijuana,” Kohl-Welles said in a public hearing on the bill. “And,
unfortunately, in 2011 when the legislature stepped up to the plate and passed
significant legislation to create a regulated, licensed producer, processor and
retailer sales system for medical marijuana, there was a gubernatorial veto
that left the collective gardens in it but took away all of the licensing
system and we’ve been left with quite a mess.”
In a sense, both bills “merge” the two marketplaces and eliminate
gardens.
Kohl-Welles’s bill, SB 5519, would require medical patients to get
a health professional-approved waiver from the Department of Health to access
medical pot. Medical marijuana would be approved for people with terminal or
dilapidating medical conditions that are severe enough to interfere with the patient’s
day-to-day ability to function.
Patients with waivers could purchase marijuana from recreational
stores that have medical endorsements. Any purchase with a waiver would be
exempt from sales and use taxes.
While gardens would be eliminated, patients would still be able to
grow up to 15 plants for themselves or designate a provider to do it for them.
The bill would also allow anyone over the age of 21, recreationally or
medically, to grow up to six plants themselves. Selling any homegrown pot would
be illegal, but growers would be allowed to share up to one ounce with another
person.
Three other states – Oregon, Colorado and Alaska, and the District
of Columbia – have legalized marijuana. All allow for home grows.
“There’s home growing all over everywhere,” Kohl-Welles said. “I
mean we can’t kid ourselves to think that’s not happening. We allow it for
patients with these authorizations which can be fraudulent… This would be much
smaller, and it would be regulated.”
Kohl-Welles’s bill would also require any local government
attempting to ban marijuana to put it up to a vote for the people in their
district. Several city, town and county governments adopted local ordinances
over the last year prohibiting marijuana businesses within their boundaries.
Rivers’s bill, SB 5052, would also require patients to get
approval from a health professional, who would then enter the patient into a
statewide medical marijuana database administered by the Department of Health.
“We are in a situation where patients have no idea what they are
getting if they are purchasing it from a dispensary,” Rivers said in a public
hearing on the bill. “We have two initiatives, and we have a responsibility to
harmonize those while putting patient needs first.”
The bill reduces the number of plants a medical patient can grow
from 15 to six. However, a health care professional can re-raise the allowed
amount back up to 15 if they think it is necessary for the patient.
Medical patients would be allowed to carry three times the normal
amount of marijuana, and they would purchase it from medically-approved stores
without paying sales and use tax.
Rivers’s bill would allow patients or their designated providers
to form up to four-person cooperative grows. The co-ops would have to be
registered by the Liquor Control Board and would need to be at least 15 miles
away from a marijuana retailer.
River’s bill passed in the Senate on February 13, by a vote of
36-11. It will have a public hearing in the House Health and Wellness
Committee.
Kohl-Welles’s bill passed out of the Senate Commerce and Labor
Committee on February 17 and was referred to Ways and Means.
Both senators attempted to pass sweeping medical marijuana
legislation last year as well. After significant revisions were made to account
for some of the concerns in the medical community, Rivers’s bill eventually
passed in the Senate. However, it was gridlocked in the House after a partisan
debate on recreational marijuana revenue sharing. No legislation was passed.
